Fenghou

Charcoal is coal, which reminds Chen Qing that they can use coal without wood as fuel!There should be coal in the Ganquanbao area. When they first arrived last year, they heard that Qinzhou was rich in coal, but they didn't take it to heart.

"Take me to see!"

Soon, Chen Qing really saw a pile of coal in the corner of the barracks. The quality was very high, but it was relatively fine.

This discovery made Chen Qing very excited. Since he bought it from the locals, there must be coal nearby, and it should be an open-pit mine.

He immediately said to Hu Yanyun: "This kind of coal can completely solve our fuel shortage. Find out who discovered them as soon as possible."

Hu Yanyun silently memorized the word coal in his mind, and soon, the word coal gradually became popular, and everyone called it coal.

……

Early the next morning, Niu Gao led [-] cavalrymen and [-] camels to fetch food from various places in Qinzhou, while Chen Qing followed Hu Yanyun to a mountain depression about [-] miles south of Ganquan Fort. The deputy capital of the puppet Qi army who surrendered was called Wang Zhong, a native of Guanzhong, and he bought a batch of coal.

"That's right there!" Wang Zhong pointed to several houses in the distance.

There lived five or six families in the col, and a few children were playing outside. When they saw someone coming, they hurried home.

"Old man Liu! Is old man Liu there?" Wang Zhong shouted loudly.

A skinny old man came out and said with a smile, "So it's the head of the king's capital!"

Wang Zhong was a little embarrassed, and quickly whispered: "I am Song Jun now, this is..."

Before he could introduce him, the skinny old man knelt down in fright, "So it's General Chen, I didn't recognize him just now!"

"you know me?"

"The villain has transported stones to Ganquan Fort and met General Chen."

Chen Qing said with a smile: "I see, Wang Zhong, you bought the coal from this old man Liu?"

"Exactly! Old man Liu, the charcoal you sold to me last time, we call it coal, where did you find it?"

"That thing was found in the Crow Pit, and there are many over there."

Place names like 'Crow's Pit' were called by the local people indiscriminately, and Chen Qing didn't know where the Crow's Pit was?

Chen Qing smiled and said, "Take us to have a look. If you find it, I'll give you twenty pennies!"

When old man Liu heard that there was a reward of twenty pennies, he laughed so hard that he couldn't close his mouth, and said repeatedly: "Go! Go! I'll take you there right away."

The so-called Crow Pit is seven or eight miles east of Ganquan Fort, a basin with a radius of about twenty miles. Old man Liu rode a donkey and led the crowd down the basin. He pointed to a place not far away that was covered by heavy snow. The covered sloping tunnel said: "It's here, you can see it when you remove the snow."

More than a hundred soldiers, all with shovels, went forward to shovel the snow together.

Chen Qing smiled and asked Old Man Liu again, "How do you use this kind of coal?"

"Put it in the clay oven and burn it directly!"

"Isn't the stove afraid of burning?"

Old man Liu suddenly understood, and quickly explained: "You can't use the old stove, you must use red clay stoves. There are many in this area. Isn't the Moon Mountain opposite Ganquan Fort just red clay?"

Hu Yanyun said to Chen Qing: "You don't have to worry about the stoves. I have seen the stoves used by the city guards before. They are very simple and convenient. There are a lot of fireclay around. In fact, the earthen stoves in every household in the city are made of this kind of fireclay. , can burn coal directly, and the chimneys are all ready-made.”

Chen Qing actually thought of how to burn coal in the room for heating. When he was a child, he had an iron stove at home, and then made a chimney out of iron sheets, so as not to be poisoned by gas. The whole family lived around the iron stove all winter.

It is estimated that it is unrealistic now, as there are not so many light irons, it is better to use a fireplace, or find a way to burn charcoal. Although there are no trees here, there are large forests in Chengji County and Qingshui County.

"Found it!" shouted the soldiers.

Chen Qing urged to go forward immediately, and saw that the soldiers had shoveled away a large piece of snow, exposing the soil layer under the snow. The soil layer was about eight feet high, and the middle layer was black coal, which was more than three feet thick. , which is equivalent to one meter. It is estimated that this area is all open-pit coal. The quality is quite good. It is a kind of fat coal, which is very suitable for household use.

And it is quite easy to mine, hundreds of soldiers can dig dozens of tons a day.

The Song Dynasty has long used coal in large quantities, especially in Bianliang, Tokyo. It is more common for people above the middle class to use coal. Blacksmiths forge iron, and military supervisors also use coal for smelting metals.

There may be a little less in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Guanzhong and Central Plains areas are the most common, and the soldiers under Chen Qing are very familiar with them.

Hu Yanyun is even more familiar with it. The Huyan Mansion in Bianliang uses coal.

Chen Qing was overjoyed, and asked Old Man Liu with a smile, "What minerals are still abundant in this area?"

Since he decided to use Ganquan Castle as his base and lair, he naturally had to make full use of all kinds of minerals here, preferably iron ore, oil, and saltpeter, it would be perfect.

Chapter 373 Coal

Old man Liu thought for a while and said: "Clay and brick are the most produced here. There is Shitou Mountain in the south. Ganquan Fort is built with huge stones from Shitou Mountain. There is also lime, which can be transported to paint the walls. The coal you mentioned, there seems to be nothing else.”

"Is there no such thing as copper iron ore?"

"I've never heard of it here. There is a government-run iron mine in Chengji, and sulfur is produced in Longnan County. There seems to be a sulfur mine here. It's north of Ganquan Castle. By the way, there is also alum, the alum in Longxi It is the most famous, we have less output here, but Qingshui County has a large output, and there are also official mines."

"I see, it's time to ask the old man to lead the way and find these minerals for us."

"No problem, I've lived here all my life and know this area like the back of my hand!"

It seemed that this old man Liu had studied for several years and was quite knowledgeable, so Chen Qing asked his soldiers to take twenty guan coins for him, and old man Liu happily left with the money on his donkey.

Chen Qing then arranged for two thousand soldiers to come to dig coal. In the evening of that day, the soldiers began to cook with coal and boil water for tea. Green smoke billowed from the sky above Ganquan Fort.

After returning from the Crow Pit, Chen Qing went to visit a group of concubines and maids who had been rescued. There were 310 five people, most of them were court ladies, and there was only one princess, Zhao Qiaoyun.

The Jurchen family members were arranged in the south of the city, and the two groups lived separately. The Jurchen family members were guarded by soldiers and were basically under house arrest.

Chen Qing walked into a large courtyard. There were six rooms in this courtyard, where eight concubines and concubines lived. Zhao Qiaoyun also lived here.

The women were busy making dinner, and another woman was lighting a stove. Song Jun sent them hundreds of catties of coal, which could be used to heat hot water.

Before Chen Qing entered the yard, he heard laughter. These women were only sixteen or seventeen years old when they were taken away, and they are only in their early twenties now. Although the life in Ganquanbao is a bit difficult, their mood is extremely happy.

How to arrange them is still a big problem. According to Niu Gao, they basically have no family members in the south. They are either in the Central Plains or Hebei, or they died, or they were taken captive to the north as slaves.

Chen Qing had an idea, if feasible, let his young generals marry them as wives.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, it was normal for women to remarry twice. Chen Qing believed that his generals would not refuse, but the key was whether they were willing?

When Chen Qing walked into the yard, the women all lowered their heads in embarrassment and hurried to work.

At this time, Chen Qing saw a young woman covered in coal dust lighting a stove, but it couldn't light up. Chen Qing recognized her at a glance, it was Zhao Qiaoyun.

"let me!"

Chen Qing knelt down beside her, lit a fire bag, lit a bunch of wheat straw, put it in the stove, and put a pile of dried shrub twigs.

Zhao Qiaoyun was about to put small coals, but Chen Qing stopped her and said with a smile: "This is not possible!"

"Then... how about that?"

Zhao Qiaoyun was not as natural as she was when she first met Chen Qing that day, but she looked a little embarrassed, her pretty face flushed slightly.

"Put some thicker logs in, or the fire will go out before the coals are ignited."

"No wonder! It goes out every time."

Chen Qing picked up a thick piece of wood from the side, which looked like a section of a siege ladder. He pulled out his sword and split it into three pieces, and put it into the stove.

"That's good, after the crushed coal is ignited, then enlarge the coal."

Zhao Qiaoyun got up with a red face and said impolitely: "Thank you, General!"

"It's okay, I just came here to see you, what else do you need?"

An older woman plucked up her courage and asked, "Excuse me, General, can we use all the daily necessities in the house?"

"Of course you can. If you need anything, go find it in the empty room by yourself. At that time, you left in a hurry, and there were a lot of things that you didn't have time to take away. I guess you have everything."

Chen Qing thought for a while and smiled, "You don't need to look for it by yourself. Tomorrow I will ask the soldiers to search all the empty houses and find all the daily necessities and pile them together. If you need anything, you can get it yourself."

Everyone was discussing, wondering what else they lacked?

Zhao Qiaoyun whispered: "General, there is not enough water!"

Chen Qing saw that there were soot on her face and the skirt she was wearing was a bit dirty, he thought for a while and smiled and said: "There are a lot of big water tanks in the city, I will give each of you a tank, you put the tank at the door, cover it Put on the lid.

Every day at noon, the soldiers will fill the tanks with water for you, and then you carry a few buckets back with wooden buckets. If you put them outside, they will freeze, so everyone needs to get more wooden buckets. Now that there is coal, everyone can burn Hot water, wash your face, take a bath and wash your hair.

Ladies and gentlemen, the current difficulty is temporary. After the beginning of spring, my main army will go north from Bashu, and will bring a lot of supplies. It will definitely get better gradually. "

"General Chen, I want to speak to you alone!" Zhao Qiaoyun whispered again.

Chen Qing and she came to the room and sat down, Zhao Qiaoyun bit her lip lightly and asked, "How does General Chen plan to arrange us?"

Chen Qing smiled wryly, shook his head and said, "Frankly speaking, I didn't think about it at all. If you have any ideas, you can tell me and I will make arrangements. As for Ms. Zhao, if you want to return to Lin'an, I will send someone to arrest you in the spring." Send it back."

Zhao Qiaoyun slightly annoyed: "General Chen thought I was joking. As I said, I am no longer a Princess Diji. I am just an ordinary girl from the Song Dynasty. Maybe I will marry an honest farmer in the future."

Chen Qing nodded, "I will respect your choice! Respect the thoughts of each of you!"

"General Chen, let us live here quietly for a while! Don't send us away in a hurry. Although we are here a little bit bitterly, we are all very happy. Everyone is very afraid of going to a new place. When the time comes, we will be separated. I don't know what to do."

"I know, you can live here with peace of mind, if you don't want to leave, I won't drive you away either!"

Chen Qing stood up and smiled, "I'll give you two sheepskins later, so you can sleep warmer at night."

"No!" Zhao Qiaoyun waved her hands in fright.

She lowered her head and whispered: "Thank you General Chen for your concern, but I can't be special, others will feel uncomfortable."

"I understand!"

Chen Qing said with a smile: "I will take more sheepskins later, everyone has a share, so you don't have to be afraid."

Zhao Qiaoyun nodded slightly, her eyes turned red, and tears fell down. It has been a long, long time since no one cared about her like this.

"Miss Zhao, do you have any children who need to be reunited?"

Zhao Qiaoyun shook her head hastily, "I was still young when I was taken away, and I have been working as a maid in the palace. This time Wanyan Drinking Lisa went out to fight, and I gave it to the Emperor of the Kingdom of Jin."

Chen Qing felt pity for her, so he said softly: "I'll ask the soldiers to bring water to you right away, you should boil some hot water first, and wash yourself comfortably."

"Thank you General Chen!"

Chen Qing turned around and left, and ordered his soldiers to bring a few tanks of water to their yard first, and then a copper Tang Pozi to each of them, so that they would be warm at night.

Chen Qing then took another 320 sheepskins from the army and distributed them to them, one for each.

……

In the early morning of the next day, thousands of soldiers began to search for items all over the city. Everything that could be used, whether it was daily necessities or clothes, cloth, sheepskin, boxes, etc., was found.

At this time, the guarding soldiers came to report, a group of golden soldiers and dozens of ox carts came, and Wanyan Wushu sent people to negotiate.

Chen Qing asked the soldiers to set up more than [-] large tents for Jin Bing outside the city, and let them live outside the city and were not allowed to enter the city!

Out of the 85 women who got out of the bullock cart, two women were too weak and died of illness on the way.

Chen Qing asked Hu Yanyun to bring 85 women into the city to register and resettle them. He was guarding against Wanyan Wushu, so he didn't find some women in Fengxiang County to fool him.

Xiao Dongsheng handed Wanyan Wushu's handwritten letter to Chen Qing and said with a smile: "Chen Dutong, don't worry, we will definitely exchange according to Chen Dutong's request, but Fengxiang doesn't have so many ex-Song Palace women, Marshal Du can only return Go to Youzhou to find them, and make sure there are not many of them."

"Do you know how many people will be exchanged?"

"We prepared a list, it should be 350 seven people."

Chen Qing nodded, it was really accurate, it happened to be 350 seven people.

After reading Yan Wushu's letter, Chen Qing said to Xiao Dongsheng again: "This time I will take away 85 people for you, and exchange the rest after you send people from Youzhou."

"Can we choose by ourselves?"

Chen Qing smiled lightly, "You can take out the list, and then everyone can discuss which ones can go first and which ones will wait for the next batch!"

There are some important people here who can't be taken away by them, let's talk about it next time!

Chapter 374 Improvement

Jin Bing left that afternoon, and their plan did not come true in the end. Chen Qing only agreed to half of the list given by the Jin Ren. Wanyan and Lisa's mother and daughter were released, but his wife and son were not released. The same is true for several ten thousand captains, only half of them were released.

After two days of recovery, the 85 new women, like everyone else, quickly integrated into their new life.

Although the problem of fuel has been solved with coal, a new problem has arisen. They lack fire starters. Coal cannot be ignited directly with a fire, and wood must be used to ignite the fire. However, the most lacking thing in Ganquan Castle is wood. .

For two days in a row, Chen Qing stayed in the big tent and fiddled with something. Hu Yanyun couldn't bear it any longer, so he dragged several generals to check.

Several generals were stunned, only to see that the big tent was in a mess, with black coal stains everywhere, several soldiers were all completely black, including their capitals were also covered in coal stains.

"Dutong, what are you doing?" Yang Zaixing asked in astonishment.

"I'm working on an improved coal that can solve the fire problem."

Chen Qing pointed to a pile of finished products beside him and said, "That's it!"